NRC Trips Obama’s Sprint to Close Yucca Mountain

Jack Spencer / April 07, 2010

In a welcome decision, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday announced that it will not act on the Department of Energy’s motion to withdraw its application to construct the nuclear materials repository at Yucca Mountain until the court system rules on related lawsuits.

Not only will it not consider the motion but it will continue its work on the application review and expects to have a significant portion completed by November. In other words, Yucca is far from dead.

The announcement from the NRC was a pleasantly unexpected one. Just days ago Department of Energy Secretary said, “We are taking steps to end [Yucca Mountain] because… we see no point in it. It’s spending a lot of money. It’s very important that we not linger around this decision. It’s been made, and we want to go forward and move into the future.” The DOE called Yucca an unworkable option. Apparently the NRC wasn’t listening.
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